Never Leave Home Without It...

Ahhhh...How good it feels to be able to sleep in on a weekday. I have to say though I'm a little sad my hubby can't join me in my utter relaxation today. It was hard to see him leave for work today knowing I wouldn't see him for several hours (sappy, I know!).

Usually I'm the one who leaves first, at the crack of dawn, and he groggily sees me off before falling back asleep.

One thing that both of us must do before leaving for the day is give each other at least several good smooches and a couple "I love you's". No matter how early one of us leaves or how rushed, grumpy, or exhausted we may be, we do not leave the house before kissing each other.

We're a fairly smoochy couple (although I never thought I would be that way before being in this relationship) and it's hard to leave without a few dozen good kisses. Some mornings it is excruciating to tear myself away.

Yes, shake your head at the ridiculous newlyweds if you must. Go throw up now if you must.

But we plan on continuing to see each other off each day with a kiss.

We wouldn't want it any other way :)

At our engagement shoot.

Love :)

Spring Break!

Soooooo, I took another extended hiatus from the blog. I have to admit I've been physically and mentally drained these past few weeks. Mustering the energy and motivation to simply throw my dirty clothes in a hamper or rinse a plate has been nearly impossible. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First of all, Easter is really late this year. Because I teach at a Catholic school, I have to wait for a break that corresponds with Easter which happens to be the last week of April this year. Let's just say it's a looooong wait for that break not only for the students but the teachers as well. I'm in need of a recharge and a break badly.

Second of all, I don't feel fully recovered from the WASC preparations that consumed my life for most of the year. Add to that First Communion planning, field trips, math conferences and you have one tired Reluctant Overachiever.

Luckily I made it! I'm off tomorrow through May 1st and I fully intend to take full advantage of my break to SLEEP!!! I'm definitely one of those people that needs her sleep.

With the proper rest and nourishment, I hope to have the energy to plant some things that I won't kill in two days. I was so inspired in Germany last summer when I saw window boxes brimming with flowers on what seemed like every windowsill. How I would love to cover our sad looking patio with green life and flowers.

Overachiever away!!! Enjoy some lovely photos that I took in Rothenburg, Germany and take a break this spring :)

Living Room Tour

I've survived yet another week and have made it to the weekend. Today, all my hubby and I have done is clean, clean, clean. I feel so much better when the house is clean and organized. Our problem is just maintaining the level of cleanliness/organization that we aspire to.

It's not that we're lazy people. We're just both procrastinators, have stressful jobs, and work long hours. Neither of us are neat freaks either, so keeping a perfect home usually isn't the priority after a long day.

Recently though, our house had passed from being livably disorganized, to stressful and kind of...well...gross.

I can now say our house is clean...for now. I took the opportunity to take some photos of our living room to share with all of you.

A view coming in the front door.

To the right is our little dining nook and our tiny kitchen.

A framed print of Rothenberg that we bought in Germany and our Waterford crystal candle holders.  I can't wait to add more artwork to that wall. That project is on my list of things to do.

A view of our tiny kitchen.

A vintage cabinet that belonged to my husband's grandparents. We store nice dishes, serving bowls,  alcohol glasses, and other entertaining-related stuff in there. Beer, wine, and alcohol (along with our German beer glasses) sit on top.

Extra chairs serve as tables to put bags on when we get home from work or from the store.

A vintage side table from my parents. Mail, a framed picture of us, and a bowl filled with chocolates sit on top. Board games and cards are inside.

Magazines, books, and the remote sit on the coffee table. My Macbook is inside.

A side table holds books and random small items.

Cords. Need a way to hide these...More books and our National Geographic magazines.

Our DVD collection to the right (zombie figurines are on top). A signed copy of Hot Fuzz's DVD cover graces the wall (yes, we're geeks).

Frames and vases sit on the mantel. The painting is from Haiti (my husband's family goes there quite often). The vase on the right was made by my aunt. Another project is to put pictures in all the frames and rearrange items on the mantel.

Another shot from behind the couch.

Another project is to find different art for the wall behind the couch. The zombie posters are mine from college (I love horror films). I'm looking for something a little more grown-up though :)

View of the hallway. Our guest bathroom is to the right. The two bedrooms are to the left.

View of our little balcony. We live on the third story so we have a nice view of the grassy area in our complex.

Our cleaning schedule...That we don't really follow. It does give us motivation though and it feels satisfying to check off items during our cleaning binges.

Ding Dong the WASC is Dead!

WASC IS OVER!!!! Woooooooooooo!

Teachers who have gone through the WASC accreditation process understand just what that means. Everyone else, just know that it was a lot of hard work that finally came to an end.

The three day visitation was actually quite pleasant and the team made it painless for us. They loved our school and now we just wait for our final "score" (although I have no doubt we will get the full six year accreditation).

Now that it's finally over, I feel much more relaxed. Today, my sweetie and I spent the morning perusing books at Adams Avenue Bookstore . There are two cats who live there (see below). Now, I'm not a cat person but I love these kitties! They are the friendliest, sweetest cats. The darker one followed me around and rubbed against me while I was looking for books.

Lucky kitties. Photo from their website.

I heart books!

I came back with some goodies. Two books for me, one book for my sweetie, and three books for my classroom (always a teacher on the hunt for good picture books). 

I plan to spend the rest of the day cleaning, relaxing, and organizing pictures on my computer. While I am doing those things I will imagine that I live in a vine covered cottage surrounded by lush green forests

Found on the awesomely named Tumblr Fuck Yeah Cottages. Obsessed.

and that I am stroking my pet foxes.

Domesticated (!) foxes. Found through National Geographic. Picture from this website.

A girl can fantasize right?

Have a relaxing weekend filled with books and dreams :)

Looooong Break

Hi anyone who happens by!

So, I had taken a little break from the blog for the past few weeks for a couple reasons:

1.) I was having technical difficulties with Blogger.

2.) I've been really busy.

The good news is:

1.) Accreditation at our school (WASC- it's like the uber audit for private schools) is over next week!!! Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I'll have more time to blog after that.

And

2.) No one actually reads this blog...yet...

Seriously though, I haven't even told my family and friends that I have a blog yet because I haven't been able to invest the time and effort necessary to make it what I want it to be. It's going to happen though!

Overachiever out.

Lazy Saturday

It's cold and rainy here in So Cal. That means I don't want to do anything. I'm feeling particularly unproductive right now. Here are some things I could be doing:

• Lesson planning
• Grading papers
• Finishing filing all our crap using this system
• Cleaning the house
• Reading a good book
• Cooking/baking something yummy
• Taking a nap

Am I doing any of those things? No. Instead I'm lounging on the couch and deciding whether or not to buy this dress (which I don't really need)

modcloth.com dress

and eating out of a three pound bag of gummy bears while perusing the entire internet.

And my husband? Playing on the computer. Sigh. What homebodies we are.

I am working on finishing the rest of the love story posts. I've noticed my blogging has decreased since I left my camera charger at my parent's house. I've used this as an excuse for not posting as much I suppose because I can't post really nice pictures with my uber camera. I am sad :(

Anyway, I hope the rest of you are having a more productive Saturday than I am.

Thoughts on Blogging

I found this post on blogging really interesting. As a baby blogger and extremely busy person, it's been difficult most of all to find any time to devote to this. As I tell my students, the more work you put into something, the more you get out of it. I love this:

"The best blogs create windows into worlds - they let you feel close to the beautiful and strange, and they look effortless. They make you feel that the secret of making a particular beauty - of turning the straw into gold - is there, graspable. Of course, it isn't. The straw in hand remains straw.  You are on your own when it comes to making gold."


Hopefully with a little time and effort, I'll create a little of my own gold out of the piles of messy straw in my life.